The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 6 Fluxbox Community Edition. Linux Mint Fluxbox Community Edition is based on Xubuntu 8.10 Intrepid, Linux 2.6.27, Fluxbox 1.0.0 and Xorg 7.4. Included is an all-new menu system, Mint-FM2, Slim as a display manager, Live CD features that should make it easier to install on low-end machines, a brand new “Software Manager”, FTP support in mintUpload, proxy support and history of updates in mintUpdate, mint4win (a Linux Mint installer for Microsoft Windows), and much more minty goodness [...]

I just downloaded it today... Am very new to Linux, going to install it for the first time tomorrow... does this mean I should download an older version of the OS?? Or I can install this version too eh?? I'm not very sure... please can someone provide help??

qfunk wrote:I just downloaded it today... Am very new to Linux, going to install it for the first time tomorrow... does this mean I should download an older version of the OS?? Or I can install this version too eh?? I'm not very sure... please can someone provide help??

Thank you for the great work. I am currently writing this using the LiveCD of Linux Mint 6 Fluxbox CE.

By the way, is there any difference in speed and functionality between this and the Linux Mint 6 XFCE CE which is currently installed on my system?

Not sure if I should remove my XFCE and install this one instead.

Your thoughts are most welcome.

this edition shares a lot with the XFCE edition. You can try this instructions in this thread... In step 3 don't install the meta package, just install the bare minimum packages... Don't install slim. Logout and choose Mint Fluxbox session (not standard fluxbox) from the login screen.

Only thing is that Wine doesn't add menu items to the menu and that I don't know how to add them to the custom-menu-items file but I will find out.

Thanks again! I appreciate it more than I can say!

The menu only monitors the /usr/share/applications/ folder for newly installed applications. Wine applications install into the user's home directory with the .desktop files placed in the user's ~/Desktop folder. So they are not detected or added to the menu. To do this see the wiki here:

I could run it to confirm everything it is marvelous. It's so marvelous that i amso inclined to install it into my WinVista. Sure i will do.( mint4win) .

Just one observation: missing languages packages (2) for Brazilian Portuguese support.They were translated - links. Pay attention for next version of the Linux Mint 7 Gloria(Please, Please, ok?) I said Please. Pleased...

I have said it before (post above) i would install it within the Windows Vista - DoneWhat a good sensation i am feeling now. Running Mint fluxbox CE 6 from within the Windows Vista now. It seems mPlayer is not working properly. I think itneeds some manual adjustment. - mint4win is Great. It works nicely.Installation - menu for win and fluxbox and all system updated.

Nice job guys. I've been waiting for this release and just got around to installing it over my primary Window$ partition - taking the dive and going full-on linux after holding out for a few years. I've been using Darnya and then Elyssa on the secondary. With this release I thought I could get my whole comp up to spec.

However, there are some flies in the ointment.

EyeCandy & Bloat.

I sort of think the Fluxbox Mint edition team is missing the boat on this. For instance, desktop effects? WTH is that all about? Why would anyone who uses Fluxbox - admittedly one of the fastest, most responsive and configurable window manager available - as their desktop want shadowed, fading windows and menus? I thank you kindly for including a toggle to turn this off and found the part in the startup script which enabled this to comment out, but a first-timer or someone experience with Fluxbox on another distro might not find this amusing. And IMHO things like Bluetooth and EnvyNG are overkill; can't you ask if someone wants these things at install time? Is it too hard to include "Do you use Bluetooth or an Nvidia graphics card?" or "Would you like desktop eyecandy effects?" during the Mint install or setup initializations?

I may be alone in this, but personally, I'd appreciate it if the Fluxbox Mint team could scale some of the bloat back.

Your feedback is much appreciated. I, myself, do not use many things that are included in the distro. But we have to cater for as large a user base as possible... both newbies and veterans alike. The reason I included all those packages by default is if a newbie uses this edition, as much as possible should work out of the box for him. And if not, then at least the tools should be available to get everything working. It is better I think to have things work out of the box which you can then turn off if you don't need them... rather than having to search for and follow guides to get things to work. The number one reason people use Mint is because it 'just works' with minimal work.

On the other hand, we have also included tools to turn off the things you don't need. Of course~/.fluxbox/startup is the easiest thing to edit... but there is also sysv-rc-conf installed by default. This gives you ultimate control over the services that run on your machine. And it is easy to use. We try to reach an ideal compromise and I hope we are close to that for most users.

About desktop effects: The primary reason I included this is because I believe looking good is a feature. A polished interface enhances user experience and I think just because one uses a lightweight desktop doesn't mean it has to look like a system from the 90s. The desktop effects are handled by xcompmgr which is a very lightweight compositing manager. Even then, a system check is run and it is started only if the hardware can handle it. And it works very well on my own machine which can't handle any kind of 3D game. Also, as you mentioned, I have made disabling them as easy as possible. Again, I hope this is a good compromise.

About including GUI options: Modifying the installer is an undertaking that is larger than I can handle. There are many things we as Mint would like to change in the installer and hopefully starting with Gloria we will be getting closer to this, at least from a developers point of view. Also I would like to include a custom GUI tool to configure aspects of this edition that require editing config files at the moment... which is why I asked for some help from anyone with some Python skills... No one has come up yet

Please do contribute to the discussion for the Gloria release viewtopic.php?f=142&t=24183 I can't promise that your requests will be fulfilled... but I will listen and consider them seriously